Why Disability Studies Scholars Must Challenge Transmisogyny and Transphobia

We argue the need for coalition between trans and disability studies and activism, and that Disability Studies gives us the tools for this task. Our argument rests upon six facets. First and foremost, we explicitly acknowledge the existence of trans disabled people, arguing that Disability Studies must recognise the diversity of disabled people’s lives. Second, we consider how the homogenisation of womanhood, too often employed in transmisogonist arguments particularly when coming from those claiming to be feminists, harm both non-disabled trans women and cis disabled women. This leads to our third point, that Feminist Disability studies must be anti-reductive, exploring how gendered experiences rest upon other social positions (disability, queerness, race etc.) Fourth, we reflect upon the ways in which Disability Studies and feminism share a struggle for bodily autonomy, and that this should include trans people’s bodily autonomy. Finally, we argue that Trans and Disability Studies and activism share complex and critical relationships with medicine, making Disability and Trans Studies useful allies in the fight for better universal health care. We conclude by calling for our colleagues in Disability Studies to challenge transmisogony and transphobia and that transphobia is not compatible with Disability Studies perspectives

Becoming women: the embodied self in image culture

Book Review : Becoming women: the embodied self in image culture, by Carla Rice, Toronto and London, University of Toronto Press, 2014, 396 pp., $32.95 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-44-261005-

The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in an Age of Austerity: Resistance, Reclamation and Affirmation

Welcome to this special forum, The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in an Age of Austerity: Resistance, Reclamation and Affirmation. Our original desire in putting out this call was to critically explore the processes and politics of austerity upon diverse and marginalized embodiments in neoliberal and advanced capitalist times. Global austerity has a far reach, often into, around, behind, beyond and alongside the body. Global austerity routinely categorizes body-minds[i] in terms of productivity, value, cost, ability and aesthetics. Body-minds are positioned vis-a-vis global austerity as a site for social order, economic possibility, progression, and big business. Whereas “[a]n able body is the body of a citizen; deformed deafened, amputated, obese, female, perverse, crippled, maimed and blinded bodies do not make up the body politic” (Davis, 1995, pp. 71–72). In devising this forum, we yearned for space to contemplate the aesthetics, experiences and the reification of body-minds - how capitalism makes sense of and shapes body-minds; the ways in which austerity both marks and produces bodies and selves, and the means through which these are further shaped by disability, race, class, gender, age, size, sexuality, and nation. Although we explore aspects of these in our own work (Liddiard, 2018; Slater, 2015), we wanted to create a space to connect with others and think about diverse and marginalized embodiments in austere times. In this introduction, we story the process through which we put the issue together, from our original decision making and putting out the call, to supporting authors to revise their contributions. We do so because we feel it’s a fitting way to speak to the inclusions and exclusions made in this forum. At the same time, we feel it offers a broader commentary as to the “state” of global disability studies today

Becoming intelligible woman: Gender, disability and resistance at the border zone of youth

This paper considers young disabled women navigating ableist and heteronormative constructs of adult womanhood. We consider adult womanhood at the embodied intersection of gender, sexuality and dis/ability (categories themselves mediated by race, class, coloniality etc.). For young disabled women, questions of gender and sexuality were more often than not denied. Gendered and sexual identities were therefore politically and strategically used to claim 'adult' and 'woman'. Yet, such identities often felt restricted to binary gendered frameworks. Already positioned through ableism as non-normative, to exist outside of heteronormativity felt dangerous, risking paternalism and non-consensual bodily intervention. Drawing on the cases of Ashley X and Marie Adams, we argue that these dangers are often more severe for those with labels of intellectual impairment and/or considered to have the most 'severe' impairments. Adulthood needs to be understood, not as a natural state of development (the endpoint of youth), but as a heteronormative and ableist socio-cultural-political construct, as well as a complex site of negotiation, conflict and resistance, which (differently) restricts how young people are able to become in the world. We fill a gap in scholarship by exploring the intersection of critical disability studies, crip theory, and youth studies from a feminist perspective

The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in an Age of Austerity: Resistance, Reclamation and Affirmation

Welcome to this special forum, The Crip, The Fat and The Ugly in an Age of Austerity: Resistance, Reclamation and Affirmation. Our original desire in putting out this call was to critically explore the processes and politics of austerity upon diverse and marginalized embodiments in neoliberal and advanced capitalist times. Global austerity has a far reach, often into, around, behind, beyond and alongside the body. Global austerity routinely categorizes body-minds[i] in terms of productivity, value, cost, ability and aesthetics. Body-minds are positioned vis-a-vis global austerity as a site for social order, economic possibility, progression, and big business. Whereas “[a]n able body is the body of a citizen; deformed deafened, amputated, obese, female, perverse, crippled, maimed and blinded bodies do not make up the body politic” (Davis, 1995, pp. 71–72). In devising this forum, we yearned for space to contemplate the aesthetics, experiences and the reification of body-minds - how capitalism makes sense of and shapes body-minds; the ways in which austerity both marks and produces bodies and selves, and the means through which these are further shaped by disability, race, class, gender, age, size, sexuality, and nation. Although we explore aspects of these in our own work (Liddiard, 2018; Slater, 2015), we wanted to create a space to connect with others and think about diverse and marginalized embodiments in austere times. In this introduction, we story the process through which we put the issue together, from our original decision making and putting out the call, to supporting authors to revise their contributions. We do so because we feel it’s a fitting way to speak to the inclusions and exclusions made in this forum. At the same time, we feel it offers a broader commentary as to the “state” of global disability studies today

Création d’une communauté réunissant les études queer sur le handicap : leçons tirées de l’escargot

Cet article décrit le Queer Disability Studies Network (Réseau d’études queer sur le handicap), un espace créé pour les universitaires et les militantes et militants des études queer sur le handicap afin de bénéficier de solidarités, au sein des études sur le handicap, queer, trans et intersexe, en particulier pour les personnes marginalisées en raison de la queerphobie, de la transphobie, de l’intersexephobie et du capacitisme. Cet espace permettrait aussi d’alimenter les échanges d’idées d’une discipline à l’autre. Le réseau a été créé pour s’opposer à l’institutionnalisation d’idées qui délégitimiseraient les vies et les identités trans au sein du milieu universitaire et offre un espace de solidarité et de résistance au sein de l’université néolibérale capacitiste. L’article fournit une explication des origines du réseau. Puis, il utilise le motif de l’escargot symbolisant le réseau pour organiser les apprentissages des études trans, queer, intersexes et sur le handicap en un ensemble de « leçons » pour les groupes cherchant à développer des solidarités au sein des communautés universitaires et militantes. Ces leçons soulèvent des questions cruciales liées aux concepts de 1) chez-soi, 2) temporalités et mobilités et 3) incarnations et vulnérabilités. Nous concluons en discutant des implications de ces leçons pour la pratique des solidarités et des politiques de coalition en des temps contestés

Building a community for queer disability studies: lessons from the snail = Création d’une communauté réunissant les études queer sur le handicap : leçons tirées de l’escargot

This article describes the Queer Disability Studies Network, a space set up for Queer Disability Studies academics and activists to find solidarity, particularly those experiencing marginalisation due to queerphobia, transphobia, intersexphobia and ableism in Disability, Queer, Trans and Intersex Studies; and for ideas in these disciplines to inform one another. The network was established to oppose the institutionalisation of ideas that would delegitimise trans lives and identities within academia and provides a space of solidarity and resistance within the neoliberal-ableist university. The article provides an explanation of the origins of the network. From this it uses the network’s snail motif to organise learnings from Trans, Queer, Intersex and Disability Studies into a set of ‘lessons’ for groups seeking to develop solidarities within academic and activist communities. These lessons raise critical questions related to concepts of 1) home, 2) temporalities and mobilities, and 3) embodiments and vulnerabilities. We conclude by discussing the implications of these lessons for practising solidarities and coalitional politics in contested times

Création d’une communauté réunissant les études queer sur le handicap : leçons tirées de l’escargot

Cet article décrit le Queer Disability Studies Network (Réseau d’études queer sur le handicap), un espace créé pour les universitaires et les militantes et militants des études queer sur le handicap afin de bénéficier de solidarités, au sein des études sur le handicap, queer, trans et intersexe, en particulier pour les personnes marginalisées en raison de la queerphobie, de la transphobie, de l’intersexephobie et du capacitisme. Cet espace permettrait aussi d’alimenter les échanges d’idées d’une discipline à l’autre. Le réseau a été créé pour s’opposer à l’institutionnalisation d’idées qui délégitimiseraient les vies et les identités trans au sein du milieu universitaire et offre un espace de solidarité et de résistance au sein de l’université néolibérale capacitiste. L’article fournit une explication des origines du réseau. Puis, il utilise le motif de l’escargot symbolisant le réseau pour organiser les apprentissages des études trans, queer, intersexes et sur le handicap en un ensemble de « leçons » pour les groupes cherchant à développer des solidarités au sein des communautés universitaires et militantes. Ces leçons soulèvent des questions cruciales liées aux concepts de 1) chez-soi, 2) temporalités et mobilités et 3) incarnations et vulnérabilités. Nous concluons en discutant des implications de ces leçons pour la pratique des solidarités et des politiques de coalition en des temps contestés

Building a Community for Queer Disability Studies : Lessons from the Snail

This article describes the Queer Disability Studies Network, a space set up for Queer Disability Studies academics and activists to find solidarity, particularly those experiencing marginalisation due to queerphobia, transphobia, intersexphobia and ableism in Disability, Queer, Trans and Intersex Studies; and for ideas in these disciplines to inform one another. The network was established to oppose the institutionalisation of ideas that would delegitimise trans lives and identities within academia and provides a space of solidarity and resistance within the neoliberal- ableist university. The article provides an explanation of the origins of the network. From this it uses the network’s snail motif to organise learnings from Trans, Queer, Intersex and Disability Studies into a set of ‘lessons’ for groups seeking to develop solidarities within academic and activist communities. These lessons raise critical questions related to concepts of 1) home, 2) temporalities and mobilities, and 3) embodiments and vulnerabilities. We conclude by discussing the implications of these lessons for practising solidarities and coalitional politics in contested times